Scanning Question

I just bought an Epsom 4490, mainly for scanning documents. I, nevertheless started to test the film and slides features.

Just reading, this thread, I learned how prints should be scanned.

Now for 35mm negatives and slides, what would be the best solution?

The maximum physical resolution is 4800 dpi (main scan) and 9600 (sub scan). I wonder if 9600 is a physical or computed value?

Anyway, I always scan at the best resolution and resize the copy for the web if required just as I do with my SLR digital camera.

I always have the film developed @ 7×5, I was wondering the best settings for scanning these photo’s so as they are of good size and quality for the web?

OK, so you want to put your pictures on the web. Lets say you want to display them at 1024 pixels across. So, the MINIMUM input resolution you need is 1024 [pixels] divided by 7 [inches], which equals a scan resolution of 146 pixels per inch. If you want to display an image on the web which is 800 pixels across, then the resolution you needs is 800/7 = 114 pixels per inch. However, as has been suggested elsewhere, a MUCH better approach is to scan at your scanner’s maximum resolution and get a much larger image, and then downsize the image to the size you actually want to display on the web using software like photoshop.

Forget about output resolution for the web. Firstly, DOTS PER INCH have nothing to do with displaying images on the web – DPI is a measure of PRINTER resolution and equates to the number of ink splats a printer will make per inch. Secondly, output resolution in pixels per inch is also irrelevent for web display – PC screens display images at a set number of pixels (if your screen is set to display 1024 pixels across and the image is 800 pixels, it will occupy around 80% of the screen regardless of the output resolution) – if your PC is set to 1600 pixels across and your image is 1024 pixels, your image will occupy around 64% of the screen width regardless of resolution and regardless of the physical size of the screen.

Andy

OK, thanks, RobAnt, I scanned it before I bought and started using Photoshop; the aim here was to show that a decent picture can be obtained from a negative – of course, one could go on and improve it afterwards, but this was a direct scan without post-processing.

Well, I think with the original scan I could make that Swordfish picture look even better.

Here’s what I managed to do just passing it through digital noise filtering software:

Hope you don’t mind PL

Swordfish scan

This was scanned off a 43-year old negative (that was stuffed into a cardboard box and survived about 20 moves to and from France, the UK and Sweden).
Scanned at 1200 dpi and then reduced as stated above.
The point being that it’s fine for the Forum resolution (well, in my humble opinion!)

I gave up scanning prints due to poor quality , thou my scanner was not the best money could buy.
i know use my 300d with 28-70 lens and take a shot of the pics they turn out so much better and is much quicker to down load the pics from the card to pc and in to photo shop a good digi camera i find is far better than most scanners .
a tripod and bit of practice will see top results.

If you scan the negatives (as I do) use the highest resolution possible to make an archivable digital photo, then in the computer take a copy of this (don’t forget to rename it!) and reduce its resolution to 72 dpi and a pixel width of 700, for example for putting on the Forum.

I suggest you scan the negs as you’ll get a better quality image. Hope this helps.

CM

If you only consider putting them on the web then the standard resolution would be only 72dpi for 8*10 inch. That calculates to roughly 165 dpi for 5*7 inch.

If you are considering printing or having these pictures blown up them I would suggest scanning at the highest resolution of your scanner (>1200 dpi) for the picture you absolute want to keep…but this usually takes a long time as the scanning could be quite slow.
So my suggestion is that for the so so pictures you can scan at 600 dpi to save time but give printable work to 8*10 inch.